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Home made Paneer

Preparing fresh paneer at home is super simple. This fresh and crumbled paneer is perfect for paneer bhurji and many other milk sweets. All you need is milk, any acidic liquid like vinegar or lemon and a cheese cloth for draining the whey water.

We usually get two gallons of milk for a week. Milk being our major source of protein, I make sure we have sufficient quantity stocked up in the fridge. Sometimes I end up with extra cartons of milk and I have to use them up before the expiry date. I don’t want to waste and we cannot gulp it up also. So either I prepare this kootu with milk or this soup or I use it for preparing curd. But during winter fermentation becomes a major issue so I usually prepare paneer. We love fresh paneer especially in the bhurjis.

What is paneer and how do we get that? All we need to do is curdle the milk. And According to wiki, “This is what happens when milk curdles, as the pH drops and becomes more acidic, the protein (casein) molecules attract one another and become “curdles” floating in a solution of translucent whey. This clumping reaction happens more swiftly at warmer temperatures than it does at cold temperatures.”

Ingredients:

Milk – 1 quart (Approx ¼ of a gallon or 947 ml)

Rice Vinegar – 3 tbsps

Steps:

Boil the milk.

When the forth forms on the top turn off the heat and let it rest for couple of minutes.

Now add the 3 tbsps of rice vinegar and mix well.

Let it rest for 10 minutes. Slowly the milk will start to curdle.

Meanwhile put the cheese cloth or muslin cloth on top of a drainer.

Pour the milk mixture and quickly rinse it with cold water. This ensures that the paneer doesn’t smell like vinegar.

Tie a knot and squeeze as much water as you can and hung it for 1/2 an hour.

After half an hour I keep this paneer bundle in the drainer again and keep any heavy object on top of this so that any excess water gets drained.

That’s it. Paneer is ready.

I usually don’t go for any shapes. Just crumble them and store them in refrigerator or use them right away. So what did I do with this paneer? You got wait :-)